Transcript shows Hur was misleading about Biden forgetting date of Beau's death

[wbrocks67]

Transcript from the special counsel shows that Biden did indeed know the exact day of Beau's death - May 30th - but took a second to remember what year it was.

Hur's account of how Biden couldn't remember when Beau died was misleading at best, given that I imagine most people who have been through a traumatic death that was years ago may also need to take a second to remember what year it was. The fact that Biden knew the exact date it happened is the most noteworthy to me, since that blows up Hur's insinuation.

Let it be known as well that this whole thing is gross though. It's very normal for anyone to forget the exact date/year of a traumatic death close to them, whether they're 81 or not. The grossest thing here was for Hur to weaponize it at all against Biden. Ding Biden for whatever else, but this in particular is something that was really pathetic to do.

https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1767523656584851950?s=20

https://twitter.com/AlexThomp/status/1767528028358262830

[wbrocks67]

Honestly, the rest of the transcript makes it clear that Biden is not a 'doddering' old man; he's human like the rest of us and doesn't remember every single thing or fact (there is mention of him doing the 'i dont recall' that Trump, Ivanka, etc. have consistently used MUCH more!) When it's not malicious (like in the case of Trump), then I don't see much of an issue, considering again - we're all human. No one remembers everything. There's other times in the transcript where he goes into great detail of events, even jokes with the interviewers, and even corrects *them* - you can't say that that all connects to someone who is also senile.

[Lief 🗽]

Whoa, the Republican DOJ guy did a dishonest partisan hit job? And the Enemy of the People fell over themselves to report it uncritically because it gave them the opportunity to attack a Democrat? And now they’re mostly just going to ignore it and move on once the actual documents have been made public?

[wbrocks67]

Hur himself didn't even know what time of day it was! And you know what - that's human too! That's my point; everyone messes up stuff sometimes. So for Hurr to go at length about Biden's memory very selectively is just very disingenuous

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1767527445597466723

[wbrocks67]

I mean-

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1767552704862179565

[wbrocks67]

I'm sorry, this transcript is rather devastating for Hur. The transcript comes off very different than how Hur made everything seem

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1767542524099309608

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I am shocked to discover that a Donald Trump appointee is a lying POS.

[Lambsbread]

My grandmother died last July. I was very close with her and I consider her one of the most important people to ever be a part my life. I cannot at this time remember what day she died (I think it was July 15th off the top of my head without checking) and if anyone ever impugned my love or respect for my grandmother based on that fact alone, I'd punch them right in their f--king face. Disgusting that this has become a repeated attack on the President. He clearly loves both of his sons and has endured tremendous personal tragedy throughout his life. He has multiple dates where people very close to him have died and I wouldn't fault him one bit for forgetting one of them--even though the transcript makes it clear that he did not forget.

[Illiniwek]

Jfc. It's Comey all over again. What a hack job.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

This is the most shocking thing I've read all day!

[Beet]

Posting this again because it can't be emphasized enough.

https://www.salon.com/2024/02/09/joe-biden-falls-victim-to-democrats-special-prosecutor-delusion/

[wbrocks67]

LMAO, I am unsurprised that Alex Thompson made sure to find a few quotes - again, showing that he's human, forgetting some years for events (that we all do), but made sure to pinpoint THOSE, but then offered this up at the end:

"Biden's team has also noted that he had excellent recall in several other parts of the interview, and argued that the missteps were exaggerated and cherry-picked."

Well, if you read the transcript, which you allegedly did, then you would know if this was true or not; you wouldn't just say "Biden's team also noted..." - it's funny how all of those moments did not wind up in this article!

https://www.axios.com/2024/03/12/biden-mental-lapses-hur-interview-transcript

[Sir Mohamed]

Can we get this to the same number of pages than the orginial thread?

This is what happens when partisan GOP special counsels are appointed by Dems. You never see the opposite happen, and even when R appoints R (like Mueller), GOPers still dismiss everything they don't like.

[wbrocks67]

Like I'm truly baffled (but shouldn't be) that now the sudden criticism of Biden's testimony is basically ... "that happened in 2016, right? 2017?" I mean, how many among us - let alone people who have been around for 80 years - do that all the time? Like I am not going to fault anyone - not even Trump - for forgetting when an event happened. I catch myself all the time doing some form of this, "oh was that 2009? Was that 2011?" That doesn't mean someone is cognitively impaired, and it's hilarious to me that this is now what they're going with.

Let alone, before it was "He forgot Beau's death" and now suddenly it is "He forgot Beau's death YEAR" since it's been revealed he knew exactly what date it was

[Hindsight was 2020]

God I hope Hur gets ripped a new one

[Rand]

God I hope Hur gets ripped a new one

Then we can call him Robutt Hurts.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

*shocked Pikachu*

Remember when all of us red avatar "hacks" were called as such for pointing out Hur is a partisan Republican likely to do something like this?

[wbrocks67]

It's amazing how this didn't end up in that Axios article!

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1767541849504235811

[Landslide Lyndon]

When will some people learn?
In the age of Trump there is no such thing as a good Republican.

[free my dawg]

Hopefully this lying sack of sh*t never gets to work on something of this magnitude again. Disbar the bastard!

[Arizona Iced Tea]

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1767574105719742491?t=ktr8Gppju15FHEp9S...

[GeneralMacArthur]

After I read this I was trying to remember if I could name the exact dates of important events in my life and I couldn't even remember the year my grandfather died.  I had to remember that I was talking to a particular girlfriend about it, and that relationship was just in 2017, so it must have been 2017.  I don't remember the day at all, just that it was summer.  Probably sometime in August?

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

After I read this I was trying to remember if I could name the exact dates of important events in my life and I couldn't even remember the year my grandfather died.  I had to remember that I was talking to a particular girlfriend about it, and that relationship was just in 2017, so it must have been 2017.  I don't remember the day at all, just that it was summer.  Probably sometime in August?

I can remember the exact dates that all of my grandparents died, including the one who died before I was born.

I should be president.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

After the Hur Report broke, I actually found an old post of mine in an emo Facebook group where I talked about the last time I saw some band, and said something like "Man it was back in 2006, I was in college, huh?" That's quite similar to what Biden was quoted as saying as to him being Vice-President then.

Obviously I didn't forget what years I was in college and I could tell you that off hand easily. It's a rhetorical statement. If Hur compiled my posts and tried to imply that I'm going senile he could do the same thing, although no one would believe it because I'm much younger than Biden. But it's the same level of intellectual dishonesty.

[wbrocks67]

After I read this I was trying to remember if I could name the exact dates of important events in my life and I couldn't even remember the year my grandfather died.  I had to remember that I was talking to a particular girlfriend about it, and that relationship was just in 2017, so it must have been 2017.  I don't remember the day at all, just that it was summer.  Probably sometime in August?

This is the crux of it - most of the hits against Biden, especially in the Axios article, are things like this. Things we all do to help us remember - where we talk out loud and you go, "Was that in 2017? I know it was when I did XYZ, so it must've been in 2017" or something like that. Everyone does that! And from the transcript, it seems Biden did that a lot - talked out loud to help jog his memory. To try and hold this against someone as if all of us don't do this is just completely disingenuous. That is what frustrates me the most (along with holding it against him that he didnt instantly remember the year his son died)

Honestly I wish THIS is the angle Dems were going for today. I could care less about equalizing it to Trumps insane statements, I feel like a more poignant point needs to be made against Hur on the merits of how disingenuous his entire report was.